I have two long stripes (water stains) on my family room ceiling from a leaking water pipe. The ceiling is stippled (patterned). What is the best way to repair? I will need to have someone repaint the entire ceiling (family room, breakfast room, kitchen, hall) because it is one continuous ceiling. Someone told me to just use Kilz and repaint over it. Any suggestions? Can you only spray paint a stippled ceiling?

No, you can paint a stippled ceiling with a roller; you just have to use a roller with a thicker pile on it. When you do that, squeeze out all the extra paint in that thick pile inside the paint tray. Don't load the roller up with paint and then squeeze it against the ceiling or you'll be having paint dripping off that roller all onto your floor. Squeeze the extra paint out of the roller in the tray so that nothing drips out when you press that roller against the stipple and roll.

If the ceiling is only water stained, and there's no other damage, then I'd say your best bet is simply to remove some discolouration if you can with a damp sponge, allow time to dry, and then just paint over what you have. If there's no drywall or plaster damage, there's no need to repair any drywall or plaster, and you can just paint over the ceiling as it is.

The only thing there are more misconceptions about than stains bleeding through a primer or paint is KILZ sealer. If people understood what KILZ sealer is, fewer of them would use it because they're realize they simply don't need to.

When a stain bleeds through a paint or primer, what's actually happening is that something in the stain is dissolving in the water or mineral spirits of the paint or primer, and diffusing through the film thickness of that wet paint or primer to discolour it's surface. The paint or primer than dries with a discoloured spot on it's surface, and people say the stain "bled through" it.

But, if a stain was caused by water dripping through a ceiling, everything in that stain is soluble in water. So, if you use a water based stain killer on that stain, chances are good that the stain will still bleed through it. However, since most things that are soluble in water AREN'T soluble in mineral spirits and vice versa, if you use ANY oil based primer (not even an oil based stain killer like KILZ), there's virtually no chance that the stain will bleed through that primer because it's not likely to ALSO be soluble in mineral spirits.

So, in your case, any oil based primer would work if you have some handy.

People think there's something CHEMICALLY different about KILZ sealer because it dries so rapidly. The fact is that KILZ sealer is an ordinary oil based primer. The reason why it dries so fast is that instead of using only mineral spirits as it's thinner, it uses a mixture of 60 percent naptha and 40 percent mineral spirits as it's thinner. Naptha is camping fuel, and in order to keep a camp stove burning on a windy day, the camping fuel has to evaporate VERY fast, otherwise the flame would go out.

So, by using that 60 % naptha instead of 100% mineral spirits as it's thinner, KILZ dries very much more quickly than other alkyd primers, and people presume there's something chemically different about it for that reason alone. In fact, that rapid evaporation rate is how KILZ supposedly stops stains... by denying the stains sufficient time to dissolve into the wet KILZ film and then diffuse through it to the surface of the wet film.the wet primer film to the surface where it'll leave a discolouration as the primer dries. The naptha evaporates so fast that the KILZ gets too thick for stuff that's soluble in mineral spirits or naptha to get very far through that wet KILZ film before it's too dry for the stuff to diffuse further.

So, if you use KILZ Sealer instead of Acme Alkyd Primer, what evaporates as each primer dries is different, but what remains on the wall or ceiling is the same.

In your case, ANY oil based primer is almost certain to cover and hide that water stain because nothing in the stain will be soluble in mineral spirits.

However, by using KILZ sealer, you're using a primer that dries very much more quickly than other alkyd primers do, and that's just shooting yourself in the foot because if you were planning to paint the KILZ on with a brush, it dries too fast to be able to brush it on without leaving horrendous brush strokes all over the place.

You can just paint any alkyd primer on (including KILZ sealer) with a roller sleeve with a thick pile on it, like 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thick pile for a stippled ceiling.

If more people realized that KILZ sealer was just am ordinary alkyd primer that dried faster than normal because it used a more volatile thinner, more people would reason out the logistics, and come to the conclusion that they don't need to use KILZ.

Just prime over those discoloured lines with any oil based primer, give the primer 2 or 3 days to fully dry, and then paint over it with a latex paint tinted to match your ceiling.

Hope this helps.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Nestor,

Nestor: Thanks for such a detailed message on the stippled ceiling water stain! This really helps me not to get ripped off by someone wanting to do a bunch of unnecessary repair to the ceiling.

Is this a popcorn ceiling or is it plaster? Be very careful with popcorn as it comes off easily when wet. Spray is best with this type of ceiling.